Exploring basketball's best ideas, strategies, and coaches around the world

Happy Sunday and welcome to all the new subscribers from around the world! We're excited to have you as part of the community 🙏

ICYMI: Last week we released a fun "clinic/film room" mashup on "Creating Longer Closeouts", as we took the live film from a recent on-court presentation we gave and inserted film from around the world to further emphasize the points made in the clinic. Read the newsletter HERE.

Today at a Glance:

🔒 SG Plus Content: OKC Thunder - Penetration & Pop Cutting Concepts​

🎤 Slappin' Glass Podcast: Sundance Wicks {Wisconsin- Green Bay}

🥇Best of the Week: Princeton Point & Corner DHOs​

🔒 Coaches Corner: SG Plus Roundtable Today @8am PST!

Let's dive in...

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OKC's Cutting Concepts

As the old proverb goes, "necessity is the mother of invention," and never is that statement more true than when looking at how coaches find ways to turn uniquely skilled rosters and lineups into highly efficient offenses or defenses.

We collaborated again this week with newly hired Gwynedd Mercy Assistant Coach/Video Coordinator, Ben Ostrow, to take a look at the OKC Thunder's cutting concepts around penetrations, pops, and spacings. In 2022-23' OKC found themselves playing with an interesting roster from an offensive standpoint, as they played an abundance of perimeter players who shot below 40% from the three-point line, but did have one of the best 1v1 players in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, along with an elite passing guard with size in Josh Giddey.

With SGA's and Giddey's ability to draw help and facilitate, OKC found unique solutions to turn those non-shooting perimeter guards into scoring threats and punish defenses readily loading up to the ball. They achieved this through the use of aggressive cutting, interesting spacings, and routinely sending multiple cutters to the rim at a time.

To best understand OKC's cutting success, in today's video we use the framework of their Ghost Screen action to tie together several of the concepts and philosophies they applied around penetrations and/or pops, along with how their weakside spacing influenced their cuts.

Zooming In: OKC's common Ghost Screen action involves 'ghosting' a player in the middle third to the two-man weakside, allowing them to either play off the ballhandler attacking downhill or the pop behind the action.

Zooming In 2.0: A common rule of thought when defending a Ghost Screen is to switch only on contact, "No Screen, No Scheme." As shown above, OKC's 'ghost' screener often tapped the back of the on-ball defender, tricking the defender into believing a screen is going to be set and opening their hips.

Burn & Lift into Space

The first concept that stands out, and one we have looked at quite often, is OKC's readiness from their perimeter players to "Cut the Stunt."{🔒} Whether on pops, drag screens, or isolations, non-shooting perimeter players had to make themselves a threat and pull their defenders out of the gaps through aggressive rim cuts in order to create space for the ball.

One of the finer details we appreciated and further highlight in today's video breakdown is how OKC re-spaced if the "Pop and Burn Cut" occurred on a two-man side. OKC gave a year-long masterclass on the "Pop and Burn" action behind the ballscreen, followed by a slight lift into the vacated space by the remaining corner player. This creates a longer closeout and opportunities for said player to either 1) rip and attack baseline, or 2) run through the pass and penetrate middle in a "stampede/chop" action look...

Zooming In: Using the "Burn Cut" to clear a gap and freeze the low defender, the player lifting into the vacated space can use his momentum to run through the catch and attack into the gap created with their defender late and recovering at a poor angle to cut off the drive.

"Blade" Cut

A major component of OKC's cutting philosophy is helping their players understand 1) opportunistic spots on the floor to "cut a defender" (Middle 3rd) and/or 2) recognizing how the defense will help and rotate on penetrating drives. This is especially true when it comes to spacings on the weakside, where OKC's below average perimeter shooters could take advantage of defensive rotations even if they didn't create the typical spatial gravity that shooters do.

For instance, if a perimeter player is spaced on the weakside with the dunker spot filled (sometimes by a guard), OKC will use a "Blade" cut to attack the defender "cracking back" on the dunker. "Blade" cut refers to the angle of the cut, curving out of the corner closer through the elbows to create optimal spacing for the catch and finish...

Zooming In: Normally, if a shooter is filling the corner behind the dunker position, the "crack back" defender has a tall order to take away a lob pass while still being able to close out to the corner on a "shake" or skip pass. However, this task becomes a lot simpler if the perimeter player is a non-shooter, as that "crack back" defender will have no qualms about aggressively helping down on the dunker. To help solve that spacing issue, OKC used the "blade cut" to turn their non-shooters into advantageous cutters.

Double Cuts

Now, routinely placing a perimeter player in the dunker position and letting them know they are essentially a glorified 'center' is not always the ego boost perimeter-oriented players want to hear. So, OKC knew they would need to have solutions when two non-shooting perimeter players were spaced weakside/behind the penetration.

Referring back to their overall cutting philosophy of being a threat and encouraging multiple cuts into the paint, OKC simply cut both perimeter players on the weakside behind a penetrating drive. With the first help defender sliding over on the penetration, cutting only one player would not be enough because the second helper's decision was a no-brainer; pick up the cut and leave the remaining player to try their luck at a 3-point attempt. Thus, both perimeter players cut to the rim to force the second helper into a much tougher decision.

OKC is a great study when looking at how clever cutting and spacing options fit around a couple of playmaking guards, especially if those other players aren't great floor spacers.

For much more on OKC's spacing and cutting concepts including:

• Cutting the stunt
• Middle 3rd dives
• Shai's middle 3rd post dives
• Cutting the "X" out
• Double cuts

Please enjoy this week's breakdown on SGTV, exclusively for SG Plus Members...

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Together with Hudl

We're proud to partner with one of the best tech companies in the world of sports, Hudl! Every play, every stat, every breakdown. On their own, they’re essential. But all together, they’re undeniable. Hudl recently introduced their newest product, Hudl Instat – a new advanced data platform that integrates with Sportscode and every Hudl product you rely on to create an all-in-one data powerhouse. Hudl Instat’s advanced tagging and next-level stat reports help you develop your team – and its global film library helps you find the missing piece to get the most out of every second of film. Visit hudl.com/slappinglass to learn more.

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Slappin' Glass Podcast

A truly fun, energetic, and thoughtful week on the podcast as we were joined by Wisconsin-Green Bay Head Coach, Sundance Wicks! Entering his first season at the helm we discuss a variety of interesting concepts including:

• Combining "Scout Stops" with Base Defensive Schemes: Coach Wicks dives into his thoughts on building a defensive system that combines detailed scouting with base principles.
• Weaponizing Switching: Within our conversation about building a defense, Coach Wicks discusses how/when they prefer to switch as a way to disrupt and keep an offense guessing.
• And we talk Advantages vs. Movement, and Coach Wicks' "ABC's" of Contagious Culture during an always fun "Start, Sub, or Sit?!"

Please enjoy the entire great conversation with Coach Wicks here...

Listen Now!

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Tactical

📺 Princeton Point - Split & Skip​

"A great way to attack out of the princeton point series. Making the skip pass to attack the low help on the high split screen."

✚ Pair With: Regis HC Brady Bergeson's uses the Princeton Point to get his two best interior scorers a post touch.

🔒 SG Plus Content: Our "Inside the Set" film room sessions with Baruch HC John Alesi on the Princeton Point and Indiana St. HC Josh Schertz on teaching splits.

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📺 4 Out Chase - Corner Grenade​

"The Jazz generate a lifted post touch of their 4 Out entry to run the corner up into a DHO."

✚ Pair With: Nova Southeastern's Snug DHOs.

🔒 SG Plus Content: Kevin Pangos DHO Skip Receives.

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Interesting Reads

📚 Dartmouth Basketball's Push to Unionize Could Spark Sweeping Changes Across College Sports​

“It’s ironic that you have billions of dollars flowing through college football and it might be Dartmouth basketball that upends the system,” said Gabe Feldman, a Tulane sports law professor and an expert on such NCAA matters."

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📚 The Sobering Reality, Yet Again, for the United States at the Basketball World Cup​

"The state of the American big man and the fact that ours have seemingly become more perimeter-based than Europe’s will continue to be a major talking point. I know I personally can’t let go of a stat you’ve surely read in this cyberspace before: There has staggeringly been only one U.S. representative among the league’s top 10 rebounders for each of the past three seasons."

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📚 How Atlanta Braves General Manager Became One of Baseball's Top Executives​

"During the private dinner, Anthopoulos won over McGuirk, vice chairman John Schuerholz, president of baseball operations John Hart and legendary manager Bobby Cox. They saw his enthusiasm and zest for the job. He appeared ready to conquer, which McGuirk said is a must in a job that isn’t your typical nine-to-five gig. Anthopoulos made the decision so easy on them that the sides didn’t even need a formal second interview."

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Join the conversation, gain insights from others, get caught up on all previous newsletters and help your fellow peers! As we use this community of coaches to make ourselves and our teams better. If you are not already an SG Plus Member, sign up to gain access to the Coaches Corner.

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📋SG Plus Roundtable! Sunday, September 17th @ 8am PST

Excited to host our final Roundtable of the summer today, Sunday, September 17th! We'll be discussing our recent "Creating Long Closeouts Clinic", Installing Offense in Preseason, Injury Prevention, and much more.

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Quote of the Week

Thank you for reading and have a great week coaching,

Dan and Pat

info@slappinglass.com

We're proud to partner with the leading Sports Travel company in the basketball world, Beyond Sports! Follow the link above to learn more about why more than 600 universities have trusted Beyond Sports for their team's foreign trips. Let them know Slappin' Glass sent you!

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